PORTLAND, Ore. – Junior Marianne Jodoin earned an early victory in the group stage at the USTA Collegiate
Invitational in Portland, Ore., on Friday. The three-day tournament, held at the Tualatin Hills Tennis
Center, is a unique round-robin singles format in which players are divided
into eight groups consisting of three college student-athletes and one junior
player.

In
singles play, each player will face every other player in their group Friday
and Saturday with the top player in each group then advancing to a single
elimination “shoot-out” on Sunday. The winner of the shootout will receive a
wildcard to a future USTA Pro Circuit event designated by USTA Player
Development.

In the first match of the group stage on
Friday, No. 27 Jodoin won the first set 6-3 over Makenzie Craft of Georgia,
but dropped the second set, 4-6 to push the match to a third and
decisive set. In the final set, Jodoin outlasted Craft, 6-3 to earn the win. In
her first match of the tournament, No. 108 Mulholland fell to Kyle McPhillips
of UCLA, 6-2, 6-2.

In the first round of the doubles draw, Jodoin
and Mulholland were edged by McPhillips and Skylar Morton of UCLA, 9-7, but we
able to battle back in the consolation bracket to top Sarah Lee and Amy
Zhu of Michigan, 8-4.

In the second match of group play on
Saturday, Jodoin is slated to face Grace Ysidora of Washington at 10:30 AM PST,
while Mulholland is play Portland’s Nastya Polyakova at 1:00 PM PST. Jodoin and
Mulholland will play one more match in group play on Sunday, with the winner of
each group advancing to a “shootout” later that afternoon.

For live updates, fans can follow the tournament on twitter (@TennisTourny) or by visiting the tournament website.